


The Upside of Change

by melremade



Series: Something More [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, One-sided pining, Reader-Insert, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 20:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13302987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melremade/pseuds/melremade
Summary: You had been Ukai’s best friend for so long that he never saw it coming—the realization that he was in love with you. And now that he knew, how could things ever be the same?





	The Upside of Change

**Author's Note:**

> I've finally written my Ukai prequel one-shot to "Something More." You don't need to read that to know what's going on but if you do like this, then head on over for more fluffiness and naughtiness!

Ukai found himself being slowly roused from his sleep.

Reluctant to wake up, he cuddled further into his warm pillow. However, awareness continued to slowly wash over him.

It started with the bright lights that he could see through his eyelids. He could feel the annoyance at them even in his half-asleep state and buried his face in his other pillow, humming contentedly at both its warmth and softness. It did the trick and his eyes were now shielded from the brightness.

He could hear the gentle sound of the rain as it hit the windows and he felt himself beginning to drift off again—especially with the soothing feeling of nails softly being scratched up and down his back.

_‘Huh?’_

Nails? Whose nails were they?

 _‘Does it matter?’_ a small voice asked in his head and he was inclined to agree. It just felt so good.

The sensation was calming. The hand would slowly move up to just below the collar of his shirt and pause before drifting down to the bottom of his shoulder blades. The more he focused on the movements, the more aware he became of the thumb that was trailing softly alongside the fingers.

There was something about the way it would swipe over his clothed back every so often that felt so...caring.

Suddenly his pillows shifted. It was minutely, but with the way he was curled so tightly around them, it was impossible not to notice.

The movement was enough to yank him back to consciousness and his eyes shot open as his whole body tensed. He winced slightly at the brightness of the room, but was still able to make out the t-shirt his face had been buried in.

And then he remembered where he was, the hospital’s waiting room. It all came rushing back to him—the phone call he’d gotten about his grandfather’s collapse, hurrying to the hospital, anxiously waiting for an update on his grandfather’s condition, and then the news that he would be alright but needed to be kept for observation.

The hand on his back had paused, its owner clearly having felt the way Ukai froze.

Slowly turning his head up to see whose lap he was occupying, his heart stopped when he was met with your face looking down at him.

 _‘Oh, that’s right,’_ he absently thought. You had come to the hospital and sat by his side all afternoon and evening. He must have fallen asleep at some point.

Your head was propped up with a closed fist to your temple, your elbow resting on the back of the bench the two of you were on. Your hair was falling forward due to how you were hunched over his form.

You shifted further over him and in doing so, blocked the light that had been shining right in his eyes. No longer needing to protect his eyesight, his eyes opened fully and he found his breath catching in his throat.

The way you were blocking the light gave you a halo that was shining ethereally. The soft smile on your lips only enhanced the image.

 _‘Fuck. You’re beautiful.’_ The thought came to him suddenly and he was still groggy enough that it didn’t worry him as much as it should have.

“Hey. Go back to sleep,” you murmured and the suggestion was made all the more appealing when you began to scratch his back once again.

“What time is it?” he asked, his voice rough with sleep. You glanced up to the clock on the wall.

“Almost midnight.”

Ukai brought up a hand and tiredly rubbed his face before sitting up fully, his body feeling like it was double its weight. He bent forward to rest his elbows on his knees and let his head fall forward with a heavy sigh. When he felt your arms wrap around one of his and your head resting against his shoulder, he looked over at you.

“It’s late. You should head home,” he said and you just hummed softly.

“I’m fine here,” you assured him, giving his arm a squeeze.

“I’m serious. Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

He began to stand up, only to have you pull him back down by the arm still in your hold.

“Are you going to just come back here after you drop me off?” you asked him with a raised brow and he gave you an unimpressed look. “Yeah, I thought so.”

When you saw that he still looked displeased, you quietly sighed and leaned back in your seat, loosening your hold on his arm.

“I don’t have work or anywhere I have to be tomorrow.” Your expression then turned softer. “And I don’t want you to be on your own.”

Ukai’s scowl slowly melted away before leaning back in his seat beside you. With a small smile, you rested your head back on his shoulder, pleased that he had decided to accept your support.

A silence settled over the two of you. Only a couple of other people were sitting on the other side of the waiting room, all other visitors and most of the staff having left earlier in the evening.

Feeling exhausted from the day’s events, Ukai rested his cheek against the top of your head and closed his eyes, ready to let sleep overtake him again. But before he could drift off, he heard a phone begin to vibrate and felt you shifting at his side.

He cracked open an eye to see you reaching into your pocket to pull out your phone. He felt you tense when you saw Tsuyoshi’s name appear on the screen and could only wonder what your asshole boyfriend had done now to put you so on edge. You made no move to answer the call and instead continued to stare down at the phone, clearly debating what to do.

When your phone stopped vibrating—Tsuyoshi having either reached your voicemail or hung up—you let out a relieved breath. But your reprieve was brief, because just as you made to put your phone away, it lit up once more and began to vibrate, Tsuyoshi’s name written across the display.

“Fuck,” you mumbled to yourself before giving a resigned sigh and answering the call. “Hey.”

 _“Hey, so since you bailed on our plans tonight, you should come over now. I’ll let you make it up to me.”_ Tsuyoshi must have been drunk with the way he was practically shouting at you. The volume was so loud that you winced and pulled the phone slightly away from your ear.

“I can’t. I’m still at the hospital,” you answered quietly and Ukai noticed that you were pointedly refusing to look at him.

 _“Oh, come on. Fuck that. It’s not like it’s_ your _grandpa who’s dying,”_ the man whined and you sharply inhaled, upset at his crass comment and knowing that Ukai had heard with how loud Tsuyoshi was being.

“Tsuyoshi—” you began to reprimand him, only to be cut off.

_“Just come over. I promise I’ll fuck you so hard that you won’t be able to walk for the next week.”_

That seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back because you instantly shot up, accidentally jarring Ukai slightly in the process. He could see your clenched fist and red cheeks as you hurriedly left the waiting area and rounded the corner into a hallway.

Ukai scowled, a bitter taste in his mouth at your boyfriend’s behavior. This was far from the first time that he had witnessed the man treat you so poorly and he was annoyed that it probably wouldn’t be the last.

Leaning forward in his seat, Ukai could see around the corner just far enough to see that you were leaning against one of the hallway walls with your phone pressed to your ear. Your expression was furious and you were speaking quickly. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to be able to hear the tongue-lashing you were giving Tsuyoshi.

You paused to listen to whatever was being said before flinching harshly. You said something before hanging up and dropping the phone to your side. It was easy for Ukai to see how upset you were when you brought a hand up to your face and covered your eyes, shielding them from sight. He looked a bit closer and realized that your shoulders were slightly shaking.

He had never liked Tsuyoshi—the man was loud, arrogant, demanding, and always too possessive of you and your time—but he had never actively hated the man like he did in this moment.

But before he could fully begin to stew over how his anger, you were already on your way back. Your eyes were trained on the floor and Ukai could see how self-conscious you were about what he had just witnessed. You sat down beside him silently, you posture stiff.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked when he saw that you weren’t going to say anything.

“Not really,” you mumbled and Ukai frowned.

“If I have to spend another minute in this room I’m going to go crazy. I’m going to go out for a smoke,” he said, standing up and stretching before looking down at you. “Why don’t you come with me?”

You finally met his gaze and he could see that your eyes were slightly red. You looked at him for a long moment before looking out the window of the waiting room.

“It’s raining,” you noted, sniffling slightly.

“You’ve got an umbrella,” he shrugged and pointed at your feet where the item in question sat. After a moment of contemplation, you nodded and stood up, grabbing the umbrella as you went.

You were silent for the walk to the elevator, then for the elevator ride to the ground floor, then as you left the hospital. You opened your umbrella without a word, holding it so that there would be enough room for the two of you to share it. The only thing you said was a quiet “thanks” as he lit your cigarette for you.

When you were halfway through your cigarette, you sighed heavily and looked down at your feet.

“You think I’m an idiot, right?” You took a long drag and then lifted your head back to blow your smoke up. “‘How could she stay with someone who treats her so terribly?’ That’s what you’re thinking, right?”

Ukai looked at you with an unreadable expression before gently taking the umbrella from your hand so that he could tilt it back slightly to peer up at the sky.

“Actually, I was thinking that I wish it would stop raining already,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s been pouring down all day.”

He glanced at you out of the corner of his eye and saw that you were giving him a slightly surprised look. A soft smile then appeared on your lips as you looked down to flick the ash off your cigarette.

“The forecast said rain all week,” you replied and you laughed quietly when he gave a groan.

Another silence settled over you, but it was much more comfortable than it had previously been. The rainfall grew slightly harder and you moved minutely closer to Ukai to try and protect yourself under the umbrella.

“I hate seeing my grandpa in that damn hospital bed,” he confessed, breaking the silence, his voice raised a bit to be heard over the rain. “It makes him look so much older than he is. I don’t know, he just looks...frail.”

It was now his turn to avoid your gaze.

“It’s okay to be worried about him—especially since you guys are close,” you told him, your tone kind. “But I think it’ll take more than a collapse to make your grandpa frail.”

Ukai chuckled around the cigarette in his mouth. He then switched hands the umbrella was in so that he could teasingly ruffle your hair. You shoved away his hand before crying out when the umbrella was jostled, exposing you to the rain momentarily.

When he laughed at your reaction, you glared at him and took the umbrella from him, lowering to your height in a petty move so that he was forced to hunch his shoulders slightly to still fit under it. But despite your momentary annoyance at him, he could see the humor in your eyes and he felt some unknown emotion overcome him.

“I don’t care who you’re with so long as they make you happy,” he abruptly said, the words spilling past his lips before he knew it, and the irritation disappeared from your features. “That’s all I want for you.”

In that moment, as you looked up at him with eyes that were shining at the unexpected sentiment, your expression so trusting, and with the rain as a backdrop, Ukai felt like he had just been punched in the gut.

You were just so beautiful.

“All Tsuyoshi does is upset you,” he continued, his voice suddenly hoarse. “I only ever want to see you happy and smiling.”

He could see in the way you were looking up at him that you trusted him enough to hear the honesty in his words and he didn’t know why that had his heart racing.

“You _deserve_ to be happy.” His words were forceful as he tried to convince you of what he was saying.

‘I _want to make you happy.’_

The thought flashed through his head so suddenly that it left him breathless. His eyes widened as he realized what it was that he was feeling.

 _He_ wanted to be the one to make you happy because he _loved_ you.

Unaware of his inner-turmoil at his revelation, you held out your umbrella to him and he numbly took it before your arms were wrapped around him tightly. His own free arm mechanically wrapped around your shoulders as he held you to him.

“Thank you, Keishin,” you said into his chest and he tried to focus on your words rather than how warm and cared for he felt in your embrace. “I’d be so lost without you.”

“So would I.” He reply was instantaneous, knowing that even without these new emotions the notion still held true.

You then let go of him and took a small step back as you gave him a sincere smile. He felt the urge to trace your lips with his thumb and he quickly shoved his hand into his pocket, knowing that he would be crossing a line if he did so.

You turned around to put your cigarette out in the standing ashtray behind you. When you were facing him again, you saw that his own cigarette—still hanging from his lips—was burning dangerously close to the filter. You gave him another small smile and plucked it from his mouth before repeating your earlier action.

“Thanks,” he mumbled through his daze and when you looked back him, your brow furrowed in worry.

“Are you alright? You look like something’s bothering you,” you noted and he shook his head before forcing his features into something that hopefully resembled normalcy.

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” he answered, rubbing a hand over his face and as he said so, a new wave of exhaustion washed over him. He then looked back at you to see the worry still etched on your face. “I think some sleep might do me good. Let’s go home.”

You continued to stare at him, like you were trying to make sure he was telling the truth. Eventually you seemed to believe him because you nodded simply.

“Yeah, let’s,” you agreed. “Why don’t you let me buy you lunch tomorrow and then we can come back here together?”

He was surprised that you knew he would be here the next day before realizing that you knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t be anywhere else.

“I’d like that,” he said with a soft smile and when you returned it with a happy one of your own, Ukai had to fight down a blush.

When the two of you began to walk side-by-side towards the parking lot to his car, he felt irritation warring with the damn butterflies in his stomach. Was it going to be like this from now on? Was he going to turn into some blushing schoolboy every time you gave him the time of day?

 _‘Why can’t things just stay the same?’_ he internally groaned as held open the passenger side door for you as you got into the car with a grateful smile. _‘I don’t_ want _to deal with any of this. I don’t want change.’_

This train of thought kept up even once he was in the car and driving towards your apartment. He was only broken from it when he saw you pull your phone out from your pocket and hold it up to your ear.

“Tsuyoshi?” you asked into the phone and Ukai’s eyes shot to you in surprise before returning to the road. “It’s me. I don’t want to see you anymore.”

There was a pause and he was unable to make out what the man on the other end of the call was saying.

“I mean that I’m breaking up with you,” you said and you winced and jerked the phone from your ear as the volume suddenly increased when Tsuyoshi began to shout. But without giving him a chance to continue, you hung up and turned your phone off.

Ukai brought the car to a stop when he reached a red light and took the opportunity to look over at you with wide eyes.

“Thank you, Keishin,” you whispered, meeting his gaze and he could see the sincere gratitude and happiness in your eyes.

The harsh sound of the rain against the roof of the car and the windows began to calm as the downpour lessened to a drizzle and the gentle tapping of the water hitting his car was much more comforting. The interior of the car was lit only by the street lights and the red of the traffic light ahead, but it created an intimate atmosphere. He could see it again—the trust you had in him, the trust the two of you had built together over the years you had been friends.

_‘I hope I can keep making you happy.’_

This time the thought didn’t leave him feeling winded or scared at what it meant for the future. Instead, he felt peaceful—like there was nowhere he’d rather be than sitting in this car looking at you.

“The light’s green,” you pointed out, nodding to the traffic light and he returned his gaze forward to see that you were right.

 _‘Maybe not all change is bad,’_ he thought. He felt the corner of his lip twitch upward and decided that sorting through his emotions could wait.

He was in no hurry. Right now, all the mattered was that you two were there for each other. Everything else could come later.

**Author's Note:**

> I can neither confirm nor deny if this was partly inspired by Rihanna's "Umbrella."
> 
> Help cure my loneliness (and get updates, ask questions, make requests, etc.) by following me on [Tumblr](http://melremade.tumblr.com).


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